Israel Adesanya says he suffered a Grade 1 MCL tear the week before he KO’d Alex Pereira at UFC 287 to regain the UFC middleweight title earlier this month in Miami. Adesanya also famously trolled Pereira’s son in-cage by mimicking the body drop the kid did to him when his Dad KO’d him previously.
The two-time champion revealed the injury news on his YouTube channel and how he prepared to fight despite the injury.
“I’ve been here before,” Adesanya said. “My UFC debut, three weeks out, I did my right ankle. I remember the next day, or that night, calling [his physiotherapist], and being like, ‘Yo, I need to see you tomorrow, ASAP.’ … He had to like, re-injure it, or cause pain to it — I don’t know, it’s f****** magic or whatever, but I remember biting on a towel and sitting there in pain, screaming as he’s f****** massaging my hurt ankle where it’s not supposed to be massaged, because it hurt, but you’re supposed to.
“So, that’s one. [Derek] Brunson fight, I hurt my knee three weeks beforehand,” the fighter’s video monologue continued. “I remember pops saying take five days off and just do nothing. It was really bad. I took five days off … three weeks before the biggest fight of my life at [Madison Square Garden]. I just took it off and then locked it in, locked it down. It’s all part of the story. This is meant to happen. No one wants anything like this to happen, but if you can’t change your circumstances, change your perspective.
“So I was like, ‘This has happened. This is my perspective. This was meant to happen. I’ll overcome this,’” Adesanya continued. “So the comeback of getting from then to the cage was already a big win for me, because after doing that — because that was really f****** bad — but I was like, if I can get through that and get to the cage, this fight, I can get through it. So it added to my confidence, added to my fortitude. I was like, they can’t break me.”
The Mindset Needed To Be An MMA Champ
First off, to participate in combat sports requires a level of physical and mental toughness well above those of the average human. To rise to championship level is something else entirely. So it’s not too surprising to learn that this is the two-time champion’s mindset.
There is a confidence that borders on delusion and a belief that you can overcome any situation that is critical to have success.
Adesanya will now begin his title defense and he has his sights set on Dricus du Plessis. The South African mixed martial artist has angered Adesanya with his comments about being the “first African champion.”
Who’s African?
The two-time champion was born in Nigeria and lived with his family in Ghana until he was 10, before they settled in New Zealand. Du Plessis is South African.
“I’m going to f****** take him to school, in the octagon and on history. What he’s doing is creating divide. You can’t know your history — I have never questioned him as an African, because yeah, you were born in Africa. South Africa. Of course you’re an African. I have never questioned that. But who the f*** is this cracker to tell me who the f*** I am? Who the f*** Kamaru [Usman] is, who the f*** [Francis] Ngannou is? I’m like, are you dumb? As a product of colonization, you’re trying to tell me who the f*** I am. You can take the boy out of Africa, but you can never take the Africa out of the boy.
“I never, ever did that to him. I never discredited him as an African. OK, there you are. Cool. You want to make a fight? Cool. But the fact that as a f****** cracker, to tell me who the f*** I am, that pissed me off, and that’s why he’s my next fight. I don’t want to fight anyone else. This one pisses me off.”
Those are literally fighting words from Adesanya. There will certainly be animosity in this one and all the back and forth and trash talking in the lead-up will just build the excitement for UFC fans.
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